CITY HALL -- The City Council voted in favor of using eminent domain for parkland Wednesday night.
HOBOKEN -- In a 5-4 vote, the Hoboken City Council adopted an ordinance Wednesday night that authorized the use of eminent domain to acquire a roughly one-acre stretch of land in the 4th ward intended for park land.
Although city officials have said negotiations will continue, the city stands to lose a $3 million county open space grant given last year if the parcel of land is not secured in a timely fashion. The $3 million is part of a total $23 million grant that can be used to acquire open space.
Earlier in the meeting, Robert Lipschitz, an attorney for Ponte Equites, Inc. -- the owner of the property -- warned the council of what he feels are the implications are of the use of eminent domain.
"The reality is, the city's own appraiser valued this land at over $10 million dollars in 2009," said Lipschitz, "and really not much has changed since 2009."
Lipschitz warned the council of his belief that a jury will decide that the city is on the hook for the full $10 million. --Stephen LaMarca
Freeholder Romano has said he feels that the County would extend the deadline for the grant money if needed..
The property when appraised in 2009 under the Roberts Administration it was appraised using the assumption of it being upzoned. That is no longer what is being done and the existing zonning parameters will be used.
1) The opening line, which states, "A few points." needs a verb. Perhaps a better way to start the comment would be: "I would like to make a few points." Or, you could simply cut to the chase and deliver your points. There really is no need to preface your comment with such a superfluous introduction. The unnecessary preface severely weakens the argument.
2) County is not capitalized in this situation. Also, I would have used "necessary" instead of "needed." I would rewrite the second sentence as follows: "Hudson County Freeholder Anthony Romano has said the county would extend the deadline for the grant money if necessary." Please take notice that I only used one period at the end of the sentence.
3) The third sentence is an absolute wreck. Perhaps your point would be better expressed if it were written as follows:
"When members of the Roberts Administration appraised the property in 2009, all parties involved were under the assumption that the property would be zoned differently in the future."
Your work has improved since the last comment, but there is still room for improvement.
Final Comment Grade: D
Thank you again for reading my posts so carefully.
It seems to me, that you are very concerned with finding ways to be critical with grammer and puntuation my posts.
Perhaps you would like to comment on the topic ?